The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 14

"To understand why I am fading, you must first understand the job of a firekeeper. A firekeeper is very much like what I am doing at the moment.

To assist a hero in his every endeavor they can. Do not mistaken however, for heroes in our land rarely move in teams and they always came in the form of the undead. Non-human entities, and whenever they first wake, we would always say the same thing to them."

"The same thing, so wait a minute, there don't wake up at once?", asked the captain.

"Unlike the lands here, only one supposed hero would wake up from their grave to perform their deed. We usually tell them the same thing."

"In the Age of Ancients, the world was unformed, shrouded by fog. A land of gray crags, Archtrees and Everlasting Dragons.

But then there was fire, and with fire came disparity. Heat and cold, life and death, and of course, light and dark.

Then from the dark, they came, and found the Souls of Lords within the flame.

Nito, the first of the dead,

the Witch of Izalith, and her Daughters of Chaos,

Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights,

and the furtive pygmy, so easily forgotten.

"With the Strength of Lords, they challenged the Dragons.

Gwyn's mighty bolts peeled apart their stone scales.

The Witches weaved great firestorms.

Nito unleashed a miasma of death and disease.

And Seath the Scaleless betrayed his own, and the Dragons were no more.

"Thus began the Age of Fire. But soon, the flames will fade, and only Dark will remain.

Even now, there are only embers, and man sees not light, but only endless nights.

And amongst the living are seen, carriers of the accursed Darksign."

"Yes, indeed. The Darksign brands the Undead.

And in this land, the Undead are corralled and led to the north,

where they are locked away, to await the end of the world.

... This is your fate."

She said as she lamented the times where the Ashen one would be by her side. Even as the world was ending, it has always felt peaceful to be by his side.

"So, what does this exactly mean?", asked Thor as he looked like a confused puppy. No offence to him but his intelligence seems to be the lowest in this room.

"Before time itself existed, there were no such thing as life or death. There were only eternally living dragons who watched over creation itself. The era is what we called the Age of the Ancients.

Meanwhile in the underground, a magical flame sprouted. We named it the First Flame. The first flame put time itself into motion. Later, three beings went into the flame and claim a Lord soul.

Gwyn took the Lord Soul of Light, while the Witch of Izalith took the Soul of Life. Nito claimed the Soul of Death. This granted them great power, essentially turning them into living gods.

Meanwhile, the Furtive Pygmy found the Dark Soul, which provided Hollows with a precious thing called Humanity. Thus, humans were born unto this world, but their power paled in comparison to the three Lords.

With their newfound powers, the three lord waged wars against the dragons in order to control the upper world. Unfournately for them, dragons were powerful beings that could not be killed by normal means.

This was until one dragon betrayed his own kind. He was called Seath the Scaleless and as his name suggest, he was born without scales that make dragons immortal.

In his burning envy for the other dragons, he revealed to the Lords that lighting could strip them of their immortality thus allowing the Lords to slay them at will.

This caused Gwyn to harness lightning to strip the dragons off their defenses.

Nito then, released a plague of death that would devastate the entire dragon species.

The Witch of Izalith burned all their homes so they would have nowhere to retreat to and the once mighty everlasting dragons were now mere memories left in the eternal flow of time.

This leaves only weaker variants like drakes or wyverns.

The only true dragon remaining was Seath the Scaleless. Then, the lords moved onto the surface world to claim it for themselves.

With the Lords in control of the world, the Age of Fire begins. Consider it a golden era, where everything flourished.

Gwyn build Anor Londo, his capital, atop a mountain so it could be closer to the sun. Nito took over the underground catacombs, spreading the concept of death from below, while the Witch of Izalith studied fire giving birth to pyromancy.

Seath sat comfortably in this new kingdom. For his services to the Lords, Gwyn bestowed upon him the status of royalty.

Seath was also provided a lab for him to conduct experiments on creatures, all in an effort to understand immortality.

These often inhumane experiments angered some people in Anor Londo.

However, all good things must come to an end. The lords panicked as the first flame begins to fade. This is because all the powers came from the first flame.

The witch of Izalith tried to replicate with her mastery over fire but it backfired and evolved into the flames of chaos from which demons that plagued the lands were created.

As a last ditched effort, Gwyn sacrificed himself, using his very soul to keep the flames burning.

He became the first Lord of Cinder, a being powerful enough to rekindle the flames by sacrificing itself.

Becoming a Lord of Cinder is only a temporary solution, delaying the inevitable darkness. Additionally, by rekindling the Flame, he has cursed humanity with immortality.

Undead humans always come back, but the more they die, the more they become Hollow.

Desperately searching for a way to keep the flame alive, the gods discovered that humanity could be used as kindling for the fire.

Unfortunately for the gods, humans had very little motivation to burn a piece of themselves away.

That is, until the curse of the undead crept over the land. Over time the undead begin to lose their sanity and turn Hollow.

The only way to keep themselves from becoming Hollow is to gather humanity and offer it to bonfires throughout the land.

Burning humanity reverses Hollowing and sustains the Age of Fire – though the sustenance of burning humanity isn't as strong as a Lord offering themselves up to fully rekindle the First Flame.

No one knows for certain where the curse of the undead originated, but some thought it was suspiciously convenient for Gwyn and the other gods who want the Age of Fire to go on endlessly.

My story begins from there on."